- Gen Z-ers can supposedly be identified by the baguette bags they carry.
- I, a millennial, have a baguette bag. Not one, but two. And a tiny pouch, too.
For this article to make sense, I need to start off by telling you two things about myself. One: I turned 30 this year. And two: I've made my peace with it, but aging is hard.
Getting older does mean some of the things I do are now considered $4. Like using the cry-laughing emoji instead of the skull. Choosing to use serif font on my Instagram Stories. Saying $4 The list goes on.
One thing that's supposedly young about me, however, are my purse choices. Sarah Thompson, a 27-year-old TikToker based out of Boston, says $4 because baguette bags are their "going out" purses. Millennial women, meanwhile, prefer crossbody bags, she says.
Praise be! Perhaps I'm not a fossil yet, for I have a baguette bag. Not one, but two! And I love them.
And if that's not enough for Gen Z, I have a tiny pouch purse too. Does that make me more of a zillennial, or am I high on the hopium?
Thompson and this epiphany about my tiny pouches gave me hope. Could it be that I still had some sense of what qualifies as Gen Z-approved fashion? Me, a 90s kid who grew up on a solid diet of Avril and Britney? Me, a writer surviving on her third cup of coffee, $4 that 11 of her favorite songs came out 20 years ago?
That said, if you have millennial energy in spades, a pouch isn't going to help you very much. There are plenty of other tells, like $4 and the $4, that define millennials beyond the short-handled shoulder bag.
And maybe it doesn't matter. People will, and should, continue to tote the pouches we want, crossbody or baguette. Maybe I can get them both. Maybe I can rock both the $4 and the fun pant. And maybe I can have it all.